May 11, 2020

Episodes 7 and 8 of The Last Dance went down last night on ESPN, and man was it good. Imagine someone telling Michael Jordan that the coronavirus said it was better than him. The coronavirus would be screwed. The sign that read “Legalize Kemp” might be the best thing on the show. “I’m back” is the greatest press release of all-time. MJ really can’t let anybody have a moment even 20+ years later. Gary Payton can’t have a couple of good games? BJ Armstrong can’t have one? A random dude from the Bullets can’t have a night? Jordan is still petty to this day! Funny thing about MJ getting mad at George Karl for not talking to him in the restaurant is that if Karl had talked to him in the restaurant he would have been mad about that too. I wish someone could have filmed MJ watching all 10 of these episodes because you can make a 10-part documentary out of that. This documentary has very few misses, but not having Jordan talking about crying on the floor after winning his 4th title because of his fathers’s death is one of them. I can’t believe Steve Kerr actually thanks MJ for punching him in the face, as if he cured the coronavirus. I get the feeling that when the NBA resumes, Lebron is going to start calling his teammates hoes and punching Kyle Kuzma in the face. This is powerful stuff though and you don’t have to agree with it, but you have to respect it.

This passage. I mean… pic.twitter.com/WGw57oUUVE

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 11, 2020

This may sound outrageous, but the Rams need to take their new found cap space and sign Cam Newton. He’s a great insurance policy for Jared Goff, and so what if he plays well enough to win the job? It’s only going to give the Rams a better chance to win in their brand new stadium. Cam is going to have to accept a backup role and try to compete. He’s a nice lottery ticket for the Rams if he hits. Plus if nothing else, he’s going to provide the fashion bloggers in LA with some good content to write about after each and every Rams post game press conference.

The NFL schedule is out. According to a poll, after seeing their 2020 schedule, 99% of Cowboys fans believe they’ll go “at least” 19-0 this year. Meanwhile the Lions schedule leaked early and it revealed 2 moral victories, an accidental win in Week 8, and a win that ruins their draft position in Week 17. The schedule didn’t do the Rams any favors though. The beginning is brutal with two east coast games, and two more later on. Then they’ll have to deal with most of the brutal divisional games later on as well. It’s like the NFL decided to tell the Rams to go to hell because ultra left wing Gavin Newsome is the Governor of our state.

I had no idea that Pau Gasol still considered himself an active NBA player. In fact, Pau actually said recently that if the opportunity presented itself, he would like to finish his career with the Lakers. I know we often like to romanticize about the Lakers past. For years we wanted Phil Jackson to come back to the Lakers after he was done. We’ve always wanted Jerry West to come back for about 20 years. None of that was really a good idea. This is a little different. If there is an open roster spot next season, nothing would be better than having Pau in a mentoring role. It would be a great story to have his career come full circle. Paul is such a good guy how could you not want that. In fact, he’s such a nice guy that a few seasons ago he turned down a $40 million offer from the Lakers, which was way more than anybody else had put on the table.

Day 60 without basketball. I needed to watch Star Wars over the weekend to remind myself what a PG-13 choke looks like in the spring. I do love though how the NBA is talking about not having any fans in the arena potentially for over a year. Meanwhile, the NFL is saying business as usual, making their schedule like nothing is happening. Ultimately, it’s going to be interesting when Governors Newsome and Cuomo draw their lines in the sand and say “no gatherings in the thousands indefinitely,” while every other conservative state Governor allow it. It’s those two Governors who really could decided whether or not were are going to see sports anytime soon.

I asked @CAgovernor @GavinNewsom about the future of sports in California?

"It's difficult to imagine a stadium full until we have a vaccine."

What about playing in empty stadiums w testing?

"It's difficult to imagine what leagues do when one or two players test positive?" pic.twitter.com/ANr6Zewtnt

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) May 7, 2020

May 4, 2020

Two more brilliant episodes of The Last Dance went down last night. Jordan was a real life Truman Show. MJ definitely doesn’t live by the G code: “They was drinking and doing drugs. Not me.” “That was Horace.”
I love the security dude hitting MJ with the MJ shoulder shrug after beating him at quarters. The security guards perm was also the MVP of the episode. MJ and the Bulls freaked out about the book written about them in 1991. Meanwhile today, teams have blogs, articles, and Twitter trolls coming after them after every game. Miller Lite had the best ad ever, and they didn’t even know it. I’m glad the documentary addressed his gambling, which I never thought was a big deal. I love how Kobe started as just “the little Laker boy”, but ended up commanding respect from everyone, including MJ himself. You can’t get more 90’s than MJ meeting Jerry Seinfeld. That was awesome. Of course it was Phil that kicked him out of the locker room. Those Dream Team practices were epic, and I couldn’t get enough of the trash talking between everybody.

Don’t get mad at the Lakers for applying for a small business loan. If anything, you should give them credit for returning the loan. It isn’t their fault they knew the government was going to run out of money, or not regulate who was going to receive the money. I can’t even blame the banks for prioritizing the loans that would make them money. The whole process just needed better regulation from the government. There’s plenty of public companies that took the loan when they could have raised the money through bonds or stock offerings. The same people that run the USC Athletic program must be running the loan program too.

We haven’t heard much from the Clippers during this lockdown. That’s probably because nobody really cares about them. However, everybody wants to talk about how small the Laker Championship window is, and how harmful it would be to lose the season for them. Keep in mind though, the Clipper championship contention window isn’t as big as you think. Montrezl Harrell is going to be a free agent this off-season, and he doesn’t exactly look like he’s been having a blast playing with this team. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are only under contract for one more guaranteed season, then they have player options after that. A season that gets cancelled is ultimately one that hurts the Clippers just as much as it hurts the Lakers.

The NHL is throwing around ideas as well for how they might be able to come back. They’ve even considered just having a 24-team playoff. However, why not just have a 31-team playoff at that point? What’s the point of the regular season? If they did have that playoff with every team, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the Kings won the Cup. Would you? I mean they were the 8th seed in 2012 when they won the Cup. Plus the NHL is the one sport where any team can knock off the top seed easily. However, something tells me Kings fans would prefer to have the a top 5 pick then a shot in a made up playoff tournament.

Finally, a very tough week for UCLA. The Bruins lost their top recruit for next year, Daishen Nix, to the NBA G-League. This isn’t just a black eye for UCLA, but one for all of College Basketball. Unless the NCAA stops drinking its own Kool-Aid thinking their archaic model still works, they are going to continue to lose elite talent to the NBA G-League. A league where the platform is insignificant, and the coaching is not as good. This is all over money. Allowing players to make money off their likeness might help, but that came too late in this case. The NCAA needs to find a way to get creative to keep this kind of talent in college for a year or two to keep them relevant. As for the Bruins, the only thing worse could be knowing that Dan Guerrero is staying at UCLA longer. Jalen Hill however, is coming back. Hill put his name in the draft and it felt like 5 minutes later he decided to come back to school. It seems he just wanted to get feedback on what to work on from the combine. I could have given him that answer though: EVERYTHING!

April 27, 2020

Episodes 3 and 4 of The Last Dance went down last night and it was awesome. We learned a ton more about Dennis Rodman, Phil Jackson, and Scottie Pippen. Pippen was so underpaid, the man deserves a stimulus check from the government. Then there’s Dennis Rodman, who went on a 48-hour bender in Vegas at age 37. I have no clue how he wasn’t incapacitated for two weeks. The fact Rodman was able to convince the team to let him go to Vegas and link up with Carmen Electra makes him deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. Also the fact Michael Jordan walked in on them in bed together is exactly the kind of story we were all waiting for while watching this. That 48-hour bender deserves a documentary in itself. Electra also claimed later on that she had sex with Rodman at the Bulls practice facility. Michael Jordan is a billionaire but he apparently can’t afford any Visine. Can’t wait until the next episode!

To the NFL where the Rams had a bizarre draft over the weekend. I’m surprised the Rams didn’t place a greater priority on their pass rush, the cornerbacks, and their offensive line than the players they selected. I can blame Cox and Spectrum for a lot of things, but even if the internet went down, Les Snead can only blame himself for this one when he looks back. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong, but the division is getting a lot better and it doesn’t look like the Rams are.

Meanwhile, the Chargers finally got their QB of the future. Justin Herbert was a a solid pick. His ceiling might not be as high as Tua’s and although it could have been fun with him, Herbert is much safer. The only downside for the Bolts is they still have no fans. It’s so bad the NFL couldn’t even find 12 Charger fans to put on the screen when it was time for them to make their picks.

Elsewhere around the draft, it was nice of the Raiders to go back to their roots and take the fastest wide receiver in the draft instead of the best one available. Aaron Rodgers is going to be moodier than a teenage girl next season after the Packers drafted his replacement. Cliff Kingsbury made everyone look broke. Dude must have bought Apple Stock in 2007. Then there’s CeeDee Lamb, who’s side piece was clearly blowing up his phone during the draft, and he was determined not to let his girl find out!

https://twitter.com/NFL_Memes/status/1253514952222158849

Finally, what an ending to the Showtime Series Homeland last night! It’s very rare that even the best television series have satisfying endings. Homeland actually got it right. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. These guys should re-write the ending of Game of Thrones while they are at it. Carrie really had me going, thinking that she was going to not only betray Saul, but kill him too. Then again, you can see how the writers really thought this one through, and didn’t rush through the ending like Game of Thrones. By the way, the show runners actually trolled those writers as well without naming them in this quote: “We wanted to go out in a successful way. We obviously didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of some, you know, to be unnamed shows, that fell down and stumbled at the end.” I can’t imagine who they might be talking about!

April 20, 2020

I’m thrilled that The Last Dance was released last night since we’re all starving for entertainment. It was fantastic! I can just see dopey analytics guy screaming while watching and saying “too many mid-range jumpers!” Imagine every member of the 84-85 Bulls in their living room, trying to explain that they weren’t a part of the “cocaine circus”. Scottie Pippen going from manager to top 30 basketball player is low key one of the best basketball stories ever. It’s a shame Jerry Krause looks like a big dope but he really had a remarkable run getting the Bulls job, then building one of the greatest teams in NBA history. I mean he was a baseball scout and just called asking for the job. He deserves more credit than he got, but less credit than he wanted. For the next month he’s going to steal the title of biggest villain on the internet from Carol Baskin. The Last Dance definitely almost never happened! Tracy McGrady revealed the Bulls agreed to a deal for him in exchange for Pippen, but Jordan vetoed the deal.

I’ve been hearing an awful lot about UCLA’s debt problem. Special thanks to Dan Guerrero, who is about to retire, and is leaving the athletic department with a nice parting gift of $100 million in debt. A large portion of that was well before this pandemic started, and Guerrero has demonstrated he’s as good at managing money as the CEO of Enron. I’m actually not sure why Mayor Garcetti is downplaying the idea of playing sports in California stadiums where fans gather in the thousands. That shouldn’t be a problem for UCLA football at the Rose Bowl, where fans don’t even gather at all anymore. In all seriousness though, declining revenue from football, a terrible television contract, and low attendance at sporting events is a sure recipe for financial disaster in any college athletic department. However, UCLA has a $5 billion endowment fund. The salaries of staff for 2nd tier sports shouldn’t be impacted by this, and neither should the second tier sports for men and women at the universities. They have plenty of money to solve their own problems and beyond. They just aren’t talking about it because they don’t want to have to use it.

As for USC, JT Daniels is entering the transfer portal. I realize that JT Daniels probably hasn’t had to win a real starting QB competition in his life, and you can probably criticize him for that. However, I truly have no idea if Kedon Slovis is really that good, or if Daniels might be a whole lot better, all because Clay Helton is coaching them. Something tells me if Helton owned a Ferrari, he would be driving it like a Honda Civic, so you really would have no idea he was driving a Ferrari. This is what’s happening here, except we probably won’t know who the Ferrari is until you see Daniels lighting it up at LSU or Michigan.

I know what you’re all thinking. The Athletic had a recent poll asking fans to rate the performance of Dodger President Andrew Friedman. No, I was not one of the two people that gave him a one. I’m as critical as anyone of Friedman, but there are certain things he does receive credit for, such as preserving the farm system. However, the inability for him to put the Dodgers over the top is not because of the lack of free agents. It’s because of his inability to build a bullpen. It’s actually been so bad in that regard, it’s damaged the legacy of Clayton Kershaw, who has had to overextend himself in playoff situations. For that reason, I can’t give him a 4 or a 5. Besides, if I did it would be totally off-brand for me!

Speaking of the Dodgers, I know that people are crucifying them right now for not refunding the money fans paid for games that are currently being postponed. We are in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic people. We have no idea what’s going to happen in a week, two weeks, let alone the next month. Give the Dodgers a chance to figure it out before jumping down their throats and giving you a refund.

The NFL Draft is set for Thursday! Look Chargers don’t get cute. If you get the opportunity to take Tua on Thursday you do it. If you can’t get Tua take Justin Herbert. You need a quarterback. Don’t try to tell me that Tyrod Taylor is going to be your QB for the next 5 years. He’s a nice stop gap, but don’t make him more than he is. Why am I not going to be surprised though if they screw this up?

April 13, 2020

Here we are still locked up in our homes for at least another month. We’re all starving for entertainment, and basketball in particular, hoping it will come back.. However, if we are lucky enough to get this season back, Lebron probably isn’t going to be a happy camper. The King isn’t thrilled with the idea of playing without fans, or playing on a neutral site. Can you blame him? The Lakers played 3 quarters of the season, and were on track for home court in the West, which is a critical element in the NBA playoffs. He’s probably also upset that he won’t be able to get on another Banana Boat this summer with his boys. At this point though, I think we should all be thankful just to get sports back in any form. It sure beats seeing guys like Jamaal Murray make porno’s on his social media account.

I tried really hard to watch H-O-R-S-E last night guys, but just couldn’t do it after 15 minutes. The connection was horrible, and I’ve seen better graphics on NBA 2K. I’m not sure why you guys are surprised to see Chris Paul get eliminated in the first round either, since that’s been happening for his entire career. Trae Young and Tamika Catchings lost in their driveways. Conley and Billups had fancy courts. You see the trend here?

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is coming up with their own wild plans to try and get their season going again. The latest idea is supposedly to have all 30 MLB teams play the season in Arizona beginning next month. That simply feels like too many players and too many logistics to keep everyone safe at the moment. Not to mention the fact that it’s really going to put a cramp in MLB Players style. I mean we know that professional athletes in general aren’t exactly the most faithful in their marriages, so now these MLB players will have to be quarantined from not only their families, but their 2nd and 3rd families in all the other cities they travel to, as well as their side pieces. Not even Andrew Friedman’s computer can help them out with that problem.

To the NFL, where the Rams found a way to get out of another big contract, sending Brandin Cooks to Houston for a 2nd round pick. Even though Cooks counts for $20 million against the cap this year, the Rams get out of the last two years of his deal, and still get a 2nd round pick in the process. Of course Bill O’Brien was on the other end of this trade. If 2020 was an NFL GM, it would be O’Brien. Cooks is a good guy, and a useful player, but he’s one more concussion away from his career ending, and he’s been passed around the NFL like a Kardashian is passed around at an NBA party. He’s the Tobias Harris of the NFL. The Rams may not be good next year, but they are on their way to cleaning up their ugly salary cap mess. Hopefully they can fix their offensive line in the draft next week to continue patching their holes. Remember, the NFL should stand for “Not For Long” because you can turn it around quickly.

I’m really looking forward to the NFL draft. Not only because we need the entertainment. Mostly because this virtual draft is going to be a disaster for many, and I can’t wait to see how these teams blow it. The Cleveland Browns will probably be using dial-up internet. Then imagine old school guys like Giants GM, Dave Gettleman, trying to get his kids to explain Zoom to him. Something messy is bound to happen, and I’m going to be there for it!

Remember a few months ago when everybody was talking about the XFL and how it was going to be different? I never bought into it and sure enough, they are going to fold. But hey, at least the XFL got more games in this year than Antonio Brown did.

I don’t know about you guys, but if there’s on thing I have learned from this cornavirus pandemic, it’s a a reminder that everything is political. I can’t even talk about the weather anymore without it being political. If I tell somebody “wow it’s really hot today”, I’ll probably get a response like “Ooooh so you believe in global warming??”. I don’t care what your political beliefs are or what you think of our President, this situation isn’t political.

April 6, 2020

ESPN should be ashamed of themselves and their “Greatest of All-Time Bracket”. I know we are starving for entertainment right now, but the fans that voted on it are just a bunch of fan boys that have never watched College Basketball, and also just started watching the NBA yesterday. Anybody with half a brain knows that Kareem is best NCAA player of all-time. Oscar Robertson, Pete Maravich, Bill Walton, and Bill Russell are among the greatest as well. All of them were eliminated early in the ESPN bracket. Michael Jordan ended up winning the entire bracket. Jordan was the greatest player of all-time way down the line, but as a collegiate, he wasn’t even top 10, and maybe not even top 20. Even Larry Bird, who was in the finals of the bracket, might not have been in the top 10. I know it’s easy to say it’s the fans fault. Then again, ESPN are the same bozos that thought Lebron was just the third best player in the world going into this season. Their experts couldn’t recognize talent if it dunked on them.

Speaking of the NCAA, they blew it again by not granting another year of eligibility for winter sports athletes. That means they screwed all those men’s and women’s hockey and basketball athletes at getting a shot in the tournament. The sensible thing to do would be to allow winter athletes to apply for the extra year of eligibility and grant it to them for those athletes that didn’t get to compete in the postseason. That’s definitely the right thing to do, but expecting the NCAA to do the right thing is like expecting the people in Florida to stay home right now and not party on the beach.

At long last the Dodgers and DirecTV have come to an agreement! Now the 70% of you that can’t watch the Dodger games can stop complaining, assuming there is a season. For the record, I never blamed the Dodgers for making the deal they did with Spectrum. Many of you clueless baseball traditionalists labeled it “greedy” but fail to recognize that this is how well-run baseball teams today come up with the money to put a competitive team on the field every year. Now the question is whether or not we are going to get a season to watch and how many games. Hopefully it’s more than 50 games, because Andrew Friedman’s software update doesn’t get completed until game 60 or so.

Congratulations to Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Tamika Catchings, Rudy Tomjanovich, Eddie Sutton, Kim Mulkey, Barbara Stevens, and Patrick Baumann on their induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Obviously Kobe, Duncan, and Garnett were first ballot no-brainers, and collectively, the class is arguably the greatest of all-time. As for Kobe, Vanessa Bryant once again showed the strength of 1,000 men when she spoke about the honor for her late husband.

I’m not sure if you guys realize just how bad this whole CNN vs Donald Trump rivalry has gotten. No matter what side you’re on, it’s bad. It’s becoming a bigger rivalry than boxers vs briefs or Siracha vs Tabasco. On the CNN side of things, what kind of legitimate news network doesn’t air parts of the President speaking during a worldwide crisis? I thought you were reporting the news, not your own spin? On the other side, what kind of a President is so committed to trolling that he actually trolls a news network on daily basis about their ratings during a worldwide crisis? It’s true that CNN’s ratings are sinking like the Titanic, and that their digital following is less than Fox News even when combined with that of MSNBC’s. That’s why Trump keeps talking about his own press conference ratings. That’s also why he keeps calling out CNN. However, can’t we just put all this nonsense aside during a crisis? Ok fine, I admit it. It has some entertainment value. And frankly, we are starving for entertainment.

Finally, The Walking Dead had a “soft” season finale last night on AMC. I say “soft” because they were unable to complete the filming of the actual season finale due to the coronavirus, so we’ll have to wait on that. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. Everyone is laughing at Princess, except the joke is going to be on all of us when we come out of quarantine and start socializing with people. This whole hoard that Beta is bringing is setting up for the survivors to have to escape by disguising themselves as Walkers again. I wonder what everyone was thinking about “King” Ezekiel when Princess said “Queen makes me sound ‘pretentious'”? Apparently Maggie is coming back in the season finale. I’m sure she’s gonna be thrilled to know Hilltop burned down. Another horse died. PETA is going to tear the writers of this show a new one tomorrow morning. Those Walkers really need to practice social distancing. Everybody is talking about The Tiger King, but we forgot that it was Ezekiel who was the real Tiger King. I still haven’t figured out whether Rick is going to make his appearance in “The Walking Dead World Beyond” series, as well as a separate Walking Dead movie we were told about. In any case, whenever the season finale airs, it’s going to be good!

March 30, 2020

I don’t know if we’re going to get any sports back this year with the global pandemic we are facing. However, if there is one sport we’re going to get back in some capacity, it’s the NBA. I have more confidence in Adam Silver, as a leader of that league, than any other commissioner of the four major sports. Silver is smart, creative, and determined to find a way to build a bubble around the 450 NBA players if it’s possible to re-start play. Considering the NBA has fewer players than all the other leagues, that might make it more feasible. On the other hand, commissioners like the MLB’s Rob Manfred, aren’t even qualified to deliver me a pizza, and have no idea how to creatively get things re-started. Baseball is delusional enough to think they can still get 162 games in. There might not be fans in the stands, and they might not be playing in NBA arenas, but if it’s possible, Adam Silver will get it done.

Nothing seems to be going the Rams way this offseason. Their defense is losing players faster than Jameis Winston is losing points on his Uber Rating. They were forced to release Todd Gurley, and now their logo is embarrassing. The Rams had a couple of weeks to leak their logo, get negative feedback about it, and did nothing to change it. Now their new logo has been called everything from Donald Trump’s hair, something that looks like a penis, and even worse…..the Chargers logo. For now, everything about this team on and off the field feels like a disaster that won’t end anytime soon.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure what the Chargers are waiting for, they need to hurry up and sign Cam Newton. He’s not going to cost them very much, and he has huge upside. It wasn’t that long ago that Newton was a league MVP. He might not be that prolific of a passer, but he has much bigger upside than Tyrod Taylor as their starting QB. I admit that it’s entirely conceivable that Cam Newton could end up studying his post game outfits more than the playbook, but the risk is low if that happens. Especially if the Bolts have Taylor behind him, and they draft a QB this year.

I was really glad to see the Summer Olympics postponed until 2021. I love the Olympics, and although I believe the IOC won’t be teaching a class on business ethics anytime soon, they made the right decision. Imagine being an athlete that trained for 4 years for this once in a lifetime opportunity to represent your country and compete in the Olympics. It would be wrong to take that moment away from those athletes, so I’m very glad they will get the opportunity again. More importantly, congratulations to all these athletes who are now free to go to In-N-Out and slam a double-double animal style with fries since they don’t have to compete for another year.

If the MLB cancels the season, Mookie Betts will never play for the Dodgers. If you think that Andrew Friedman is going to pay $300 million for Mookie then you probably also think that the coronavirus came from Corona beer. Although I gave Friedman credit for trading for Betts, I also made note of the fact it’s risky to trade for a player that has only one year left on his contract, as opposed to trading for a player like Nolen Arrenado, who has lots of term left on his contract. If the Dodgers get on the field and win the World Series this won’t matter, but until that happens, it might be a risk that went really badly.

Tell me you’ve seen Tiger King? Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. Every episode is crazier than the last. Why did John do every interview without a shirt on? Then again, John freaking out about having to wear pants perfectly explains this quarantine. It’s hard for me to imagine that Carole didn’t kill her husband, especially when she wrote “disappeared” on his Power of Attorney. While it’s easy to say that Joe was framed for the murder-for-hire plot, in my mind all these people should be in jail. If nothing else, Joe, Jeff, Carole, and Doc Antle should be in jail for being lunatics. We simply should not have people walking around who are that crazy.

Finally, The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. Daryl and Negan need to be in every scene from here on out. That tandem was so good. It’s still bizarre seeing Negan as a good guy, especially knowing that he crushed the skulls of two of our favorite characters in the show. Still, the duo’s acting is phenomenal. I love the Whisperer dude who said “screw this, I’m outta here”, and ran away from Beta and the dude who got his face ripped off. That scene of the walkers drinking martinis in the bar, as Eugene went by, was like a recreation of The Haunted Mansion ride, at Disney. The worst news is that we won’t get to see the season finale until later in the year. Thanks coronavirus. For all intents and purposes, next week is the season finale for us so let’s enjoy it for now!

March 23, 2020

Those of us who are smart are currently practicing social distancing. Meanwhile, the Rams are practicing financial distancing from Todd Gurley, after cutting him last week. This was way too premature. Gurley might not be what he was two years ago, but he’s still better than the options the Rams have at running back. This move just goes to show you that the relationship between Gurley and Sean McVay had deteriorated to its breaking point. While I admire Les Snead for going all-in to get the Rams to the Super Bowl in 2019, his long-term management of the cap and draft capital hasn’t been good. In the NFL, you don’t pay people before you need to, and the Rams did that with Gurley, Cooks, and even Goff. With no 1st round pick this year or next, the best this team can hope for is a big improvement from Jared Goff, catching lightning in a bottle with Darrell Henderson, and Sean McVay regaining his magic. Unfortunately, this team is likely going to be last in the NFC West. At least you have a new stadium to enjoy!

As for the Chargers, their off-season is actually going better than most people think. Losing out on the Tom Brady sweepstakes is actually a good thing. Now they can finally go draft a quarterback. They need one worse than most people need toilet paper right now. In the meantime, Tyrod Taylor is a good enough quarterback to keep them competitive this year, especially with an improved offensive line, and a very solid secondary. In the NFL, the less sexy your off-season looks on paper, more often than not, the better off your team is going to be. With a solid draft, this team may very well be able to sneak into the playoffs next year. Whether or not anybody will go their games though is a different story.

Elsewhere around the NFL, of course Tom Brady is going to play in Florida next year. It’s what old people from New England do. Philip Rivers signed with the Colts, which instantly makes Indianapolis the 3rd largest city in America. Then again, with gatherings limited to less than 10 people these days, Rivers might have to give up one of his kids for adoption. Bill O’Brien’s work from home stint is off to a bad start. He traded DeAndre Hopkins, and couldn’t even get a bottle of expired hand sanitizer and a pack of toilet paper in return. I’m sure he’ll be trading J.J. Watt for Mitch Trubisky and a deep dish pizza this week. Thank God for NFL Free agency right now to keep us entertained!

The NBA badly needs to come back. Nene is making low budget porns and Jamaal Murray is getting head on IG. This global pandemic needs to end ASAP. If we are lucky to get the Association back this year, these guys will probably need some sort of a mini training camp to play again. Unless you are a superstar player with a workout facility in your house, you are probably at your pad slamming Doritos and playing video games. It’s going to be a problem with so many guys out of shape, but at this stage I’d consider it a quality problem to have. In case you missed out on Nene’s low budget porn here it is….

https://twitter.com/Ballislife/status/1239199622100328451

People, what part of “stay home” and “social distancing” do you not understand? I thought it was only people in Florida who were idiots? Just because the sun came out doesn’t mean you can go to the beach. This is a serious global pandemic, and many morons were out at the beach this weekend like everything was cool. Some people were even playing basketball in Laguna, Newport, and Venice Beach. Apparently some of you need to get really sick, or see your loved ones get hospitalized to take this seriously. Look at these idiots…

In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, people chose to ignore the "stay at home" order to go hoop at Venice beach in California pic.twitter.com/9He7e5zWj0

— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) March 22, 2020

Finally, another eventful episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. Spoiler alert so read no further if you plan on watching it later. I did not see this episode coming at all, as we lost another significant character. This time it’s Michonne, who is bidding us a farewell. I at least like the fact that she didn’t die in the episode, and that they are setting the stage for an appearance from her in the The Walking Dead movie. However, I still can’t really buy into the idea that she is just going to leave her daughter behind to go find Rick, and that her daughter is perfectly ok with it. I thought the alternate reality she was experiencing made it an interesting episode, but not one that I would have pictured for her last episode. She was an excellent character overall, but the sad part is you can see an expiration date in sight for this entire show given all the characters they are losing. Only 3 episodes left this season!

May 16, 2020

Rudy Gobert is such a good defender, he just shutdown the entire NBA, as well as every other major professional sport in this country. I’d make fun of Gobert for being reckless and stupid, but then again so were the rest of you that were out at bars, restaurants, and other public establishments this weekend. The NBA did the right thing by acting swiftly in suspending the season the other night. On the bright side, if we are really looking at a 3-month hiatus then the Knicks have a chance to play in June for the first time since 1999. This is obviously a serious bummer for the Lakers, and even the Clippers, who were vying for an NBA Championship. Then again, there’s probably a lot bigger things to concern ourselves with at this point than NBA Basketball, as much as we could really use the distraction.

If there is one thing I have learned from this Coronavirus scare it’s that we live among people who are nothing but extreme. This is a serious situation that needs to be handled carefully by everyone. However, being careful doesn’t mean panicking and losing your mind like the world is going to end. I admit it….I actually went to a bar on Friday night, but I didn’t feel good about it and I left. The way to handle this isn’t going out in public places and go to bars and restaurants, but it certainly isn’t going to the store and buying 50 rolls of toilet paper as well as buying months of groceries. It’s called moderation and sensibility. Unfortunately, we’re learning that most people don’t have it.

One thing that hasn’t stopped is NFL Free Agency and the off-season. I’m not a fan of the new collective bargaining agreement. These owners clearly don’t care about player safety, otherwise there would be no 17th game. We also don’t need two more playoff teams. The NFL is becoming over saturated, which we saw with the creation of Thursday Night Football. Meanwhile, Ryan Tannehill just scored a $118 million deal with the Tennessee Titans. That should be able to afford him five 6-packs of toilet paper from Costco.

As for the Chargers, they placed the franchise tag on Hunter Henry last week. Has anyone checked in on him to see how he’s taking the bad news? He must feel like a prisoner that just got denied parole. .At the same time, I still can’t see the Chargers coming to a deal with Tom Brady. Even if I overlook the fact the Bolts are cheap as hell, I don’t see the cultural fit. Brady is used to a high level of intensity and accountability with a franchise he’s been with for twenty years. He can’t recreate that culture with a new team in short order.

Then there’s the NCAA, which as usual, mishandled everything this week. They disappointed everyone by canceling the tournament instead of postponing it, and there’s really no good explanation for it. I don’t buy for one second that it’s just too hard to recreate a 68-team tournament over three weeks. The NBA and the NHL have 30+ teams in their league, and 1/3 of the teams share an arena. They aren’t cancelling their seasons yet because they know they can figure out the schedule if necessary. I wouldn’t trust the NCAA to tell me what they wanted on their pizza so this has to be about money. My theory is that they get more money from their contracts by cancelling the tournament instead of postponing. Also, thanks to the NCAA for teasing us twice by suggesting they would release the 68-team bracket, and then decided not to. Now we can all imagine what it would have been like to play PlayStation at home and simulate the whole tournament. What a bunch of crooks! Hope they follow through and give all the Seniors in every winter and spring sport an extra year of eligibility.

Since people are acting like it’s the end of the world, it’s only fitting we talk about an eventful episode of The Walking Dead last night on AMC. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you plan on watching it later. Apparently Negan did learn something from Rick, which we found out when he killed Alpha by slashing her throat. I guess now we know who let Negan out of jail. It was Carol, who once again proved she’s a badass. They are the ultimate apocalyptic tag team. Great episode except the one night that we needed Chris Harwick to show up and host Talking Dead he doesn’t. Damn you Coronavirus! You’re taking everything from us!

Finally, The Bachelor wrapped up last week, but not before some serious fireworks. So after all that Peter Weber ended up with nobody. We thought he was going to give it a shot with Madison, but the relationship has reportedly ended. I’ve seen 7th grade relationships last longer than this one. Peter’s major mistake was leaving Hannah Ann after she was engaged to her. I’m glad she ripped into him on National TV in the finale. Funny that everyone wants to blast Barbara for not being supportive of her son, but the reality of it is she was right all along. Barb cried so hard during those last two episodes, you would think she was at Costco and couldn’t find any toilet paper. Then again, the arguments during the finale were much better than the Democratic Presidential debate last night. Now Bachelor Nation is hyped because Hannah B went to Jupiter, FL to quarantine with Tyler C. I’d lose my mind if I were quarantined with that woman. Nevertheless, here’s to hoping we get more satisfactory endings on this show in the future.

March 9, 2020

That was a spectacular weekend of basketball by the Lakers.  Wins over the Bucks and Clippers should shut up the Laker haters in the media, who seem to think they can’t beat elite teams.  Frank Vogel did an outstanding job going small to matchup with the Clips.  Avery Bradley and KCP were huge, and it was nice to see Kuz contributing in other ways than scoring.  AD dominated but I think I saw him lick his hand and low-five Bradley yesterday.  I don’t think the CDC would approve on that one.  In case you haven’t noticed, Lebron is still the best player in the world.  He just dominated both Giannis and Kawhi this weekend, and he should also be the MVP, as I said last week.  Nobody is more valuable to their team.  Hope all the Laker fans enjoy getting to troll Marcellus Wiley and the 5 other Clipper fans on Twitter after that victory.

As for the Clippers, they are still loaded and in good shape with 19 games left.  However, they have issues to workout to win these big games.  They are oozing with talent, but all of that talent needs the ball to be effective.  That was evident in the 4th quarter yesterday when Lou Williams was very quiet, and Paul George disappeared like Bernie Sanders lead in the polls.  Also, nobody complains like Doc Rivers, this time about the 1230 pm start.  I’ve got news for you Doc.  You aren’t playing at 1230 pm because you are the third tenant in the building.  You are playing at 1230 pm because you have a good team and are on National TV.

That was a tough loss for UCLA against USC on Saturday afternoon at the Galen Center. However, losing on a buzzer beater to a tournament team that is on a roll should not a be a punishment that puts the Bruins outside of the tournament. UCLA has been playing like one the top 15 teams in the country for weeks. If you think that they should be excluded from the field because they lost to some weak competition 5 months ago, you are about as spaced out as Joe Biden. This is a completely different team, not to mention one that would make the NCAA Tournament that much more fun to watch.

I don’t know if anybody has seen Dodger stadium lately, but they are working on some renovations and are way behind. Andrew Friedman’s computer must have failed him again, because I don’t see how the center field plaza they are building is going to be ready by March 26th. On a positive note though, the Dodger pitching staff is already looking really good early on in Spring Training. Now if only they could just not make us pull our hair out in October.

I’m don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like the Rams new logo.  Did LA get a new arena team because that feels like where this logo is from?  In fact, it almost looks like a Chargers/Rams logo merger.  Anything that can be made in 5 minutes on Microsoft Paint is probably not something that needs to be made into an NFL logo.  It literally looks like they just took two of the blandest letters and said, “Let’s add Donald Trump’s hair quaff to  the ‘A’ and call it a day, shall we?”.

Another episode of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you plan on watching it later.  Is this what the Corona Virus will look like in 10 years? Negan looked like he was questioning his life choices in that first scene walking among the dead with dead skin on his face.  That episode had a slight Game of Thrones feel to it.  Carol giving The King the pity sex has to frustrate everybody hoping for Daryl and Carol to get together.  What the hell is wrong with you Eugene? You could have made out with Rosita and still gotten with your boo.  This dude couldn’t get laid if Tinder existed in the apocalypse.  Also not sure how Rosita is keeping her eyebrows on fleek like that in the apocalypse.  Too bad Hiltop doesn’t have fire insurance after Alpha burned it to the ground last night.  Guess we won’t be seeing Maggie go back there when she returns this season.  It was a pretty good episode, and looking forward to seeing where things go next week.

Finally, The Bachelor went down on ABC last week with the Women Tell All, and it’s back tonight. I know you all did a little victory dance when you learned that Victoria was sent home by Peter. It’s about time that nonsense ended. Then again, I just don’t see how Madison and Peter are compatible given their values. Did nobody notice that Madison’s rose was actually falling apart when he handed it to her? Seems indicative of the relationship. I also like how Victoria claimed she had not broken up previous relationships, but we all know the internet has receipts. I’m beginning to think that cut Peter has on his forehead might have given him brain damage for keeping Victoria around this long. This was really one of the most uneventful Women Tell All’s I can remember. Peter played nice with all his ex-girlfriends, and even the spats between all the ladies were nothing too intense. I’m anticipating some major drama these next two nights to make up for it.